The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved protocols developed by ATS Labs that would allow antimicrobial product developers to register disinfection and sanitizer products intended for fogging or misting applications. The protocol will confirm a product's antimicrobial efficacy against public health organisms when tested in the dedicated fogging and misting testing room at ATS Labs' Eagan, Minn. facility.

In the past, the EPA did not require disinfectant product registrants to submit data when fogging or misting product claims were initially registered, as the claims were not considered public health-related claims at that time. The EPA Pesticide Program now requires these manufacturers to substantiate the claims by submitting GLP-compliant data to demonstrate efficacy when the product is applied using a fogging or misting device. The official letter, dated April 1, 2013, is available on the EPA's website at: http://www.epa.gov/oppad001/fogger-mister-final-signed-letter.pdf.

ATS Labs worked closely with EPA officials through a Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) submission review in developing these protocols that have now been approved by the EPA. Having the protocols formally approved provides manufacturers with a faster and more economical solution to satisfying the new regulatory requirements. These EPA-approved protocols can be used to support the use of any type of fogging and misting device that registrants would like to include on their product label. ATS Labs has extensive experience working with antimicrobial pesticide fogging or misting products and has developed protocols for supporting efficacy label claims for bacterial disinfection, virucidal efficacy, efficacy against Clostridium difficile spores, tuberculocidal efficacy, non-food contact sanitization, and food contact sanitization.

In addition, the dedicated fogging and misting testing room at ATS Labs is equipped with independent air handling and temperature control to perform this testing. Additional test rooms are available to meet manufacturers' specific space requirements based on the device used in testing.